I heart Utah

It seems my luck with hostels has run out. Actually, I don't know that its a matter of luck, but rather a lower standard of living for the Mountain region hostels then with East coast hostels. I'm in Jackson Hole, Wyoming now and the Teton Village hostel (creatively named "The Hostel") looked promising with all of its rustic, mountain decor but evolved into my most nightmarish attempt at sleeping thus far in the trip. I kept coming back to "I'd rather be camping; I'd rather be camping." My belief is that outdoor bugs and dirt are preferable to indoor bugs and dirt. And I actually sleep better on rock-hard ground then on rock-hard mattress. And I'll take incessant chirping of crickets over the incessant herd-like stomping of elephants in the form of pre-teen boys in the room above. Again, patron saints became involved as I tried to pray to a patron saint of sleeping, hoping for some sort of spiritual tranquilizer. The saints must be getting pretty sick of me.

We last left off with me arriving in Denver. I stayed there for five days, moved onto Moab, Utah for a day and a half, landed in Salt Lake City for three days and arrived here in Jackson Hole yesterday. Denver was a fantastic reprieve from road-tripping. One of my best friends, Jess, lives there with her boyfriend, Matt. They are like family to me and have graciously offered their apartment as a landing ground for me while I'm out west. I did a bunch of maintenance chores while there: uploaded more audio books (from the Denver Public Library, which they probably do not condone so don't tell anyone); made sure that air pressures and engine liquids were at appropriate levels in my car; did laundry; and ate lots and slept lots. My main highlights were a hike in the Garden of the Gods:

And an afternoon of puzzles in Washington Park (Jess and I are a pretty lethal crossword puzzle-solving duo):

We were just missing our third partner in crime, Sara, and Denver wouldn't have known what had hit it.

I moved onto Moab last Sunday with the plan of staying two days. After about 15 minutes at the "Lazy Lizard International Hostel", my stay shrunk to one day. It was reminiscent to me of the trailer park that Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter lived in in "Raising Arizona." I'm sure there was a baby named Junior running around there somewhere. The "front lawn" furniture consisted of car seats taken out of junk cars, a refrigerator box side table and a pail of cigarette butts. But I made sure to catch Arches National Park before leaving the area and was awe-struck with nature's feats:

The drive to Salt Lake took me through two other National Parks where I tried the ol' hold-the-camera-out-the-window trick for this shot:

This puts me in Salt Lake City. I have to admit that I've been party to some stereotypical views of the city. I was practically ready to be carded when entering city lines so they could check my religious affiliations, and then, finding out I'm a gentile, run me out of the city with torches and pitchforks. I was, in some part, expecting to see the horse and buggy as the main mode of transportation and women with bonnets and men with long beards, and then realized that I had mixed up the Mormons with the Amish and I slightly altered that expectation. But not by much.

But then I got there and I fell in love. SLC is actually giving Minneapolis a bit of a run for its money as head-runner for my favorite places so far. I don't know if I was specifically looking for it but the city seemed to be one of the most progressive that I've been to. There are tons of coffee shops and hip stores. The young folk are all tattooed up (I have a neutral stance on this but find it a sign that times are a-changing for the city.) I've been reading about how the Utah liquor laws have changed as of last summer. I guess there was a system of applications and memberships to bars just to get served a drink and glass partitions between bartenders and patrons for reasons I haven't figured out. But that has changed now and I have a feeling places are making the most of it.

And it has Antelope Island State Park a half hour away which has turned out to be my favorite outdoor area thus far. Instead of describing it in too much detail, I'll let you do your homework and look it up. What I loved about it was that it had rocky beaches and lots of wildlife but the interior island is like the midwest plains and then becomes mountains. Its like the island has a little bits of different parts of the US. And I found my dream bench there: